


forget all about the pressure of days

by amorremanet



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Backstory, Birthday, Challenge Response, Character Study, Depression, Family Feels, Ficlet, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Mental Health Issues, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 19:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11812734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amorremanet/pseuds/amorremanet
Summary: “You don’t want your beach-party?”“WhywouldI?”





	forget all about the pressure of days

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Writing Feedback Network’s](https://writingfeedbacknetwork.tumblr.com/), “summer” drabble challenge. Title is from Elliot Smith’s, “[Between The Bars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPD-a1FjUtU)” (—and in its original context, it’s actually a pretty depressing lyric, but…… it’s Elliot Smith, so that kind of goes with the territory).

Over Elliot Smith’s “Between The Bars” playing on his speakers, Seb hears his front door creak open, but doesn’t lift his head off the pillow. Lola and Chewie tramp down the hall, tails wagging delightedly, but Seb stays flopped out on the sofa with Achilles burrowing into his chest. It doesn’t fix anything, but Seb’s little guy needs to feel like he’s doing _something_ about whatever’s thrown His Person off this time.

Meaning to say, _“Thank you,”_ Seb ruffles the fur on Achilles’ back. Achilles paws at the hem of Seb’s long-sleeved t-shirt and whines. They still can’t quite speak each other’s language, but it sounds an awful lot like, _“Dad, it’s **hot**. Take this **off**.”_

“So, Julian and Addie meant it, _mon loup_?” comes Jeremy’s telltale drawl, as sleepy, slow, and throaty as the August air is suffocatingly humid. “You don’t want your beach-party?”

“Why _would_ I?” Seb says without thinking. “Ruining everybody’s fun again and getting sand in places where there should never be sand? Thanks, I’ll pass.”

As his brain catches up with his mouth, Seb cringes at how whiny and petulant he sounds. He only relaxes when Jeremy peers down at him, furrowing his brow like his fuck-up baby cousin’s a piece of particularly unintelligible art. When staring doesn’t get him answers, Jeremy pauses Seb’s iPod. Scooping up Achilles, he sits on Seb’s coffee-table, beside a hardback copy of Proust’s _Sodome et Gomorrhe_.

“What’s going on?” he says, frowning maybe-sympathetically. “Julian’s learned his lesson about trying to fuck you on the beach.”

“Sand gets everywhere anyway. I hate it.”

“I hate how one of my favorite people thinks he can lie to me after nearly twenty-five years, but that’s just me.” Jeremy shrugs. “We don’t have to go to the beach, okay? It’s your birthday. Addie and me can change the plans.”

“Can you just _cancel_ them?” Seb forces himself up. Slouching, he tugs both hands through his tangled hair. “I love you, I love my sister, but I’d rather not bother celebrating this year.”

There’s no good way to explain himself, so Seb yanks his sleeves back to the elbows. There’s no way Jeremy can miss his intent. Gnarled, self-inflicted scars cut glaring, not-quite-red lines down the middles of Seb’s vampire-white forearms, drowning out his tattoos’ black ink, the faded marks from razors and lit cigarettes. While Jeremy ghosts his fingers along Seb’s arm, Seb watches his cousin’s face. Nearly six weeks after Max, his eldest brother, interrupted the mess that gave Seb these souvenirs, looking at them still makes Seb want to puke.

“Hate to say it, but that’s kinda _why_ the rest of us want to do something. We’re _glad_ we didn’t lose you.” Jeremy’s wobbly smile is paper-thin, but at least he’s trying. “What if we stay home and keep it simple? Family and close friends only?”

It takes him a moment, but Seb nods. “No liquor ’til Max takes Marie home. My niece doesn’t need to see us get like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Featuring one of the main cast members from my original fic novel (—which is actually a superhero story, but all my heroes are some kind of emotionally damaged mess or another, so Seb’s in pretty good company), and his cousin Jeremy (who is dead by the time the story actually begins, and got to star in this piece because I feel bad for him, but not so bad that I’m going to change a huge turning point in the backstory to let him live).
> 
> ……At least I have a canon multiverse, though? And there are plenty of canonical AU’s and alternate timelines where Jeremy’s alive? Granted, there are also canonical AU’s where the world has been overrun by demonic monsters that feed off of human emotions like fear and anger, and the canon coffee-shop AU is a _Brave New World_ -inspired dystopian shit-hole that I hope would make Aldous Huxley ask what the Hell is wrong with me…… but the salient point here is that there are canonical AU’s where Jeremy isn’t dead.
> 
> He is still quite dead in the prime timeline, though, which is why he got to be in this ficlet.


End file.
